China is renowned for its efficiency, given the large population that it has and the willingness of its citizens to go the extra mile to get things done. But for most of us who have never been to China and witnessed this drive ourselves, it’s hard to imagine to what end these people are willing to go to ensure that their goals are met. Don’t believe us? Just check out this article recently reported by The New Straits Times.
According to the English daily, it only took China 10 days, according to state media, to construct a fully operational field hospital for use to combat the Wuhan novel coronavirus outbreak within the heart of the city itself.
Mind you, that’s a 1,000-bed hospital that workers helped build around the clock in just the short time of 10 days before handing it over to the Chinese military for 1,400 medics to use. The hospital takes up over 33,900 square meters and was based off on the design of the Beijing Xiaotangshan Hospital, built during the SARS outbreak in 2003.
Many of the staff selected to work in this newly constructed field hospital have previous experience in dealing with outbreaks of a similar nature, as a number of them have a background in the fight against another coronavirus, SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). SARS, which set the world in a panic in a manner similar to the Wuhan novel coronavirus in 2002-2003, claimed over 650 lives.
The field hospital that was set up in the very epicentre of the virus’ outbreak was meant to help relieve the strain that has been put on Wuhan’s already stretched thin medical staff, with a population of over 11 million people complaining about long lines to see a doctor after an official city-wide lockdown had begun.
Dubbed ‘Fire God Mountain’ Hospital, the field hospital will officially commence operations today (3rd February 2020). Another field hospital, dubbed “Thunder God Mountain“ Hospital, will be slated to open on Thursday, with a capacity of over 1,600 beds.
Despite the challenges that they have faced, this comes to show that the citizens of Wuhan are certainly not about to slow down in their fight against the novel coronavirus! We hope that these new hospitals will serve them well, and that they will continue to persevere through this difficult time!
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